Ghostbusters (2016) is the remake of one of comedy’s most beloved films, aptly called Ghostbusters. In the remake of the comedy classic, a group of scientists want to prove that ghost, in fact, do exist. But when ghost and other spooky things starting popping up in Manhattan, the scientists – along with a fellow New York worker – go out donning the iconic jumpsuits and proton packs and goes to fight the ghosts. This is a film that most people were looking forward to hating. The most disliked movie trailer on YouTube as we speak. Is the movie that bad? Is it as bad as the trailers suggest? No…but it’s pretty darn close.

Now let’s make one thing clear: this movie is bad, but it is NOT BECAUSE THE CAST IS ALL WOMEN!!! I’m tired of getting attacks from people claiming that I hate Ghostbusters because it’s cast is all female. It’s not bad because it’s an all-female cast. If the cast performed well, it wouldn’t matter. But they didn’t perform well, so I’m dinging them on it. Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig can be funny and – for that matter – be funny together. Have you seen Bridesmaids? That movie is hilarious. But with Ghostbusters? No, they aren’t. They are far from it. The closest one to being funny is Kate McKinnon, but that could be because I know her type of comedy from SNL, and that type of comedy fits what made Ghostbusters funny. But it didn’t work in this movie, and neither did Leslie Jones. The chemistry felt off and weird in a lot of scenes, which isn’t good in an ensemble remake of arguably one of the best action comedies of all time.

What makes the movie worse? You know how comedies are supposed to be funny. Like…funny? Not “mild chuckle” funny, but “oh-my-goodness-I’m-gonna-bust-a-blood-vessel” funny? Ghostbusters is not that funny, nor is it funny at all. A lot of the jokes that actually made me mildly chuckle were in the trailer, and those were slim to none. What’s more, most of the movie was easily predictable and didn’t give the viewers any suspense. The callbacks to the original felt completely forced and unnecessary, only there just to re-affirm the fact that this is a remake of a classic. But instead of taking cues from the original films and using them as a base, they try to twist this around to be something less Ghostbusters and more of a less-funny Bridesmaids with ghosts. The CGI did not look finished nor anything close to it, and all the ghosts didn’t even look like ghosts. They looked more like something out of Haunted Mansion, which wasn’t good. At all.

Is the movie all bad? For the most part, it is. But there were some “not-as-bad” moments in the film. The end wasn’t terrible: it was fairly exciting for about 5 minutes with some cool moments. But 5 minutes out of a 117 minute film isn’t enough to save it. The cameos were fun and Chris Hemsworth had some chuckle moments. But other than that…nothing.

In the end, I think Ghostbusters shows exactly what happens when film and ideology clash in the most horrible of fashions. The whole “girl power” campaign they had for the film didn’t save it. And the director firing at the fans who were supposed to pay to watch this film all the more killed the film. When Ghostbusters fans are saying that this movie looks terrible, and Feig says “it’s not for these guys”, that was the nail in the coffin. While some were trolls, a lot weren’t. And this isn’t for the thousands of fans of Ghostbusters? No wonder it bombed.

Ghostbusters wasn’t good, guys. It has 73% on Rotten Tomatoes. Which means movies like Race, Spectre, and Thor: The Dark World were worse than this sloppy remake. But nobody wants to criticize it for fear that they’ll be burned by the internet for not liking it. Ghostbusters isn’t good. It’s not close to good. Save that cash and put it towards Suicide Squad. Otherwise, don’t bother.

Subscribe

Get Teen Ink’s 48-page monthly print edition. Written by teens since 1989.